I'll be the first to admit, RastaMonkey's controls are mesmerizing, addictive, and I totally suck at it. Still, I love the graphics and the music and it's just so much fun that I keep on trying to get better.
My kids love RastaMonkey too. When we get to a particularly difficult part, we pass the iPhone around until one of us gets past it. This is one of the beautiful things about playing games on the iPhone, and it's why I'm so pleased to be able to share this great interview with Noam Abta of Nitako.
The Noam Abta iPhonespaz Interview
Jamie: Respecta, Noam! What can you tell us about Nitako?!
Noam: Respecta! Nitako was founded in 2008 by Yuval Markovich and myself, and is located in Rishon Le Zion, Israel.
We both studied animation and graduated with honors in 2004 from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (Our graduation film "Smile" won several awards and has entered over 40 film festivals).
Prior to Nitako, we were the product managers and creative directors on Aniboom for two years. We left Aniboom on 2008 to start Nitako games studio.
Jamie: No wonder RastaMonkey is so beautiful! How many apps do you have on your iPhone and how did you switch from film/web to app development?
Noam: It's actually an iPod Touch. 
I have about 6 pages full of them, all games.
Me and my partner Yuval left the company we worked for a year ago and searched for an opportunity to fulfill a dream to make a living out of making our original games.
When Apple announced that they are going to open the store, where tons of people can actually buy your stuff in a convenient way, we instantly knew that this is something we have to join, So I guess what got us attracted in the first place was the remarkable business opportunity. After a very short while we also fell in love with these amazing devices. The whole system Apple built around them that allows developers to come in contact with their fans and actually improve their games based on real customer feedback is something I've never seen before and I doubt if someone is really going to challenge this is the near future.
Jamie: In addition to being one of the most beautiful games out there, the controls in Rasta Monkey are unlike any other game I've played so far. What was your inspiration??
Noam: Wow, thanks, mon. When we were trying to figure out the controls, we knew this game was challenging and we wanted to create the smoothest simplest controls possible, we started fiddling around with the accelerometer like everybody else did and then, almost by accident, we came with this weird point and click mechanism that just felt right. A lot of things just happen through experimenting when you develop games so you just have to be flexible when trying to create something new. Most of the time, what you get in the end is radically different from what you imagined so the key here is to play the game constantly and change it all the time until something just feels right.
Jamie: What is your favorite iPhone app and why do you love it?
Noam: I'm currently pretty addicted to Geo defense and Edge. I also love Sway, Pocket God, Ancient Frog and Touchgrind. I think what captures me the most is tight gameplay. The second thing I like is to see is when developers create truly original games that can only work on this platform (Touchgrind is a great example I think). Then again, sometimes even a game which is just a version of an older game I've seen a thousand times before can capture me for hours just because the gameplay is really fun and addictive, but we wouldn't create such a game myself because were mostly excited about creating stuff we haven't seen before.
Jamie: I dig that. There are so many possibilities. Speaking of that, the 3.0 OS is pretty much set in stone now, but if you could add one feature what would it be?
Noam: Well, I really love the way Apple is constantly improving the platform and I think 3.0 will be a great leap. From a game design perspective, In the future I would have added the optional ability to "dress up" the iPhone with a game controller that has real buttons. This could add a lot of possibilities for game controls ( gameplay is all about interesting combinations of controls) while is could also create a great side product for Apple.
Jamie: I'd love to have that ability too. Of course, I'd probably attach all kinds of weird stuff! Because we're iPhonespaz, we've got to ask this... What's the geekiest thing you've done with your iPod Touch?
Noam: LOL. I think the geekiest think I did with it is to buy those ugly plastic protector cases for fear of breaking the device. I guess this is more of a fashion crime so I'm not sure what's the penalty for that but I'm certainly very ashamed of myself
Jamie: I can't fault you there. I did the same thing! Thanks for your time, Noam! Best of luck!
Noam: Thank you so much, this was really fun! Respecta!
0 comments…